The JR Newsletter is the official e-newsletter of the John Reich Collectors Society. The purpose of the John Reich Collectors Society (JRCS) is to encourage the study of numismatics, particularly United States gold and silver coins minted before the introduction of the Seated Liberty design, and to provide technical and educational information concerning such coins.

Sunday, October 9, 2016

I just received my catalog in the mail yesterday.Kobe & Fanning Numismatic Booksellers (http://www.numislit.com/)
is offering a complete set of the John Reich Journal Vols. 1-24 (Whole Numbers
1-74), plus the first two issues of Vol. 25 including the index volumes after
Vols. 10 and 20.Estimate $500.

Plus there are other interesting books for those members
looking to add some hard to get reference materials to their libraries.

Ralph Munoz

JRCS #30

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Winston Zack inquired:

Will the JRCS have a meeting and/or educational presentation
at the Baltimore show next month?

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Pete Mosiondz, Jr. wrote:

I was pleased to
obtain a very nice coin recently and would like to share some thoughts with our
friends.

More
often than not when I look at an encapsulated coin I say to myself, “How did
they arrive at that determination?” Most of the time I feel that a particular
coin is overgraded.

I
remember meeting Abe Kosoff many years ago when I was beginning to dabble in
coins as a part-time dealer. I asked him for some guidance based on his many
years of experience. He was very gracious and spent quite a bit of time with
me, more than I could have ever hoped for. The one thing that always stayed in
my mind was his strong opinion on grading. This was before he became involved
with organizing the American Numismatic Association Certification Service. He
told me to always look at a coin objectively and not with rose-colored glasses.
He suggested recognizing and evaluating the coin’s negative aspects
(detractions and imperfections) then recognizing and evaluating the coin’s
positive aspects (strengths). Evaluate the overall eye appeal. Does it look
nice or maybe not so nice? Finally, and most importantly, always be
conservative in your grading. In other words never “stretch” the grade.

At the
time we were using Brown and Dunn or Jim Ruddy’s new Photograde book. Abe was
adapting the Sheldon grading system for other coins as well, especially in his
auction sales.

I
must say that the professional graders who graded the 1823 Capped Bust Half Dollar
(image below), that I happily obtained from a dealer friend recently, must
have had Abe’s thoughts in mind. I thought to myself, “Why isn’t this an AU
coin?” Do you agree, or am I wearing rose-colored glasses? By the way, it is an
O-105.

Nominees for JRCS Hall of Fame

Nominations for the JRCS Hall of Fame class of 2019 are now OPEN.

The membership is encouraged to send nominations for the Hall of Fame at any time. You can nominate candidates for either the veteran (those who contributed before the advent of JRCS) or the modern (those who have been members of JRCS) categories. Please include any pertinent information about the nominee that you feel necessary. Nominees will then be voted on by the HOF committee and the inductees will be announced at the annual meeting at the ANA convention in the summer. We look forward to seeing your nominations!

Please forward your nominations to bkaroleff(at)yahoo.com or to jrnewsletter(at)gmail.com or to any of the other members of the JRCS board of officers.